Welcome to the Forum Archive!

Years of conversation fill a ton of digital pages, and we've kept all of it accessible to browse or copy over. Whether you're looking for reveal articles for older champions, or the first time that Rammus rolled into an "OK" thread, or anything in between, you can find it here. When you're finished, check out the boards to join in the latest League of Legends discussions.

[Guide] A competitive guide to Annie

For pictures and good looking formatting and stuff, read it here: http://www.leaguecraft.com/strategies/guide/440,A+competitive+guide+to+Annie
Please, rate and comment on leaguecraft, even if its negative. I'm hoping to get into top 5 guides

Annie - fairly underused in lower and average level games. For some reason she doesn't have the attractiveness that is so commonly found in heroes such as Twitch/Fiddlesticks/Blitz. However, Annie is ridiculous. Huge burst potential with stun and decent survivability means that she is highly viable in higher level play. Her ability to solo is also vastly underrated, as not many people know how to abuse her skills early game.

1. Masteries and Runes

You really only need Archaic Knowledge (and maybe Embers if your using ignite) in offensive tree. The rest can go in utility for more regen + cooldowns. I've tried putting points into defensive tree, but really, annie shouldn't be tanking much. http://www.leaguecraft.com/masteries/1003400100000000000000000000013034030030301
please adjust if your using exhaust or ignite or whatever other summoner spell your using

In terms of runes i prefer:
magic penetration for marks,
magic regen/evasion for seals
cooldown/mana regen/magic penetration for glyphs
straight +health for quints

Please note that this is to boost overall usefulness and survivability in games. I know that there are people who prefer higher damage output over survivability/cooldown/regen, so if your one of those people, go for magic penetration for marks and gylphs and then straight +AP runes for seals and quints.

2. Summoner Abilities

Summoner Skills: Annie is highly versatile with summoner skills since she already have stun + high damage.
*Flash - gives her more survivability and allows her to chase/initiate with stun or get out of team clashes.
Ignite- Another nuke for your arsenal. Get burning embers as well if your gonna use it. Use it first in fights.
Exhaust- Good Slow and amplifies damage if you get its mastery, which you should if your using it. Don't use it on cleanse users.
Teleport - For ya know, teleporting. Preventing BD and such. Can be used to ward tele (more on that later on)
Heal - Gives heal for survivability, annie shouldn't be carrying this though
Clairvoyance- Free maphack. At least 1 is needed for each team in my opinion.
Clarity- Mana is always good. Allows annie to be more aggressive in lanes.
Cleanse - Not as useful as before, but a stun/ slowed Annie is a dead annie.
Fortify- Errr, i don't know. VERY situational. Perhaps if your facing a premade push team

3. Items
Start with either:
Doran's shield- for maximum lane sustainability. It gives health, armor, and regen, what more do you need?

Doran's shield- More AP, health, and mana regen, so you can be more aggressive.

If you want to get a Haunting Guise, then you can also start with rejuv bead and faerie charm. However, this doesn't offer anywhere near as much survivability or usefulness if your early laning phase.

Health Pots!!! Yes, your never too cool for consumables.

After that:
IF YOU WENT WITH HAUNTING GUISE BUILD
Haunting Guise -Offers decent regen along with some valueble magic penetration and cooldown reduction.Then follow rest of build.

OTHERWISE
Boots -Cuz you need to move fast.

Soulstealer- ONLY IF YOU ARE DOING WELL AND YOU KNOW YOUR TEAM CAN KEEP YOU ALIVE. Otherwise, this is just a waste of money.

Rod of Ages (http://www.leaguecraft.com/item/Rod%20of%20Ages) If you get can get this early enough (pre 20-minute mark), the go for it. It offers more health, AP, and mana, and thats never a bad thing.

Upgrade your boots. Tabi against dps heavy teams, mercury against slow/stun team, and Sorcerer's if not worried about survival, not to mention it gives more magic penetration.

Abyssal Scepter (http://www.leaguecraft.com/item/Abyssal%20Scepter) or Void Staff (http://www.leaguecraft.com/item/Void%20Staff) because your AP scaling isn't too great, and magic penetration/reduction will provide more of a benefit. Get Abyssal if your facing lots of nukes/casters or if there are other main casters on your team. Otherwise go for the void staff since it's much cheaper and very effective against those magic resist stackers. If you got the money, go for both.

Banshee's Veil (http://www.leaguecraft.com/item/Banshee%27s%20Veil) Your gonna need to survive in team clashes, epecially late game when a single stun or nuke can basically force you to back off. It offers valueble HP and Mana, and the magic resistance and spell block is INVALUEBLE, especially if thier team is caster heavy. Who wants to focus an Annie with Molten Shield and spellblock on at the same time? Even if they do try to take your down, your team will be able to gain significant time to return the favor. I always get this late game, unless thier team is super dps heavy, then...

Frozen Heart (http://www.leaguecraft.com/item/Frozen%20Heart) Massive amounts of armor + slower attack speed mean that dps will have an even tougher time taking you down, not to mention it means that they will be taking more damage from your shield. It helps your whole team as well, and not to mention the bonus mana.

Deathfire Grasp (http://www.leaguecraft.com/item/Deathfire%20Grasp) IF THEY TANK HARD, then this is the item for you. 30% hp is no joke, and many times tanks will back off from the sudden drop in thier health. The cooldown if fairly short (60 sec) and it also offers cooldown reduction and a good AP bonus. ALWAYS TRY TO USE THIS FIRST when starting your combo, since this is when it's the most effective. A lot of people tend to finish with this or even forget to use it, and that would be a shame. For those who down't know, you can assign hotkeys to your items in the options menu, so assigining the item slot for Deathfire to T or some other accessible key will be very useful.

Zhonya's Ring (http://www.leaguecraft.com/item/Zhonya%27s%20Ring) Super late game item. Basically overkill. More mana, as if you could spend what you have now... and a huge AP boost to keep up the ownage. It's super luxury, so i prefer to add more survivability or something.

Final Build: http://www.leaguecraft.com/builder/Annie/4fa814c998cb5f54fcc4e546038b5227
Yeah, that gives a burst of 2100 damage in less than a few seconds. Be prepared to stack another 1000 on when you hit cooldown.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Items are situational, and of course you can win with other builds. I know that you can go Archangels or completely forgo survival items and still come out 15-0 or something of that sort, but in close games that comes down to gaining a one or two hero number advantage to win, these are the items that will make a difference.

4. Skill Order
There are two ways to start Annie, beginning with either Incinerate or Disintegrate. The difference is that Disintegrate gives better farming capabilities, since you can start last hitting at level one. This is most usefull when you are soloing a lane, since you wont be getting first blood now (unless your team is going hunting for first blood), and getting a quickly level and money advantage is key. Going incinerate first means that you can get a stun, because you can spam it 5 times at fountain/on the way to your lane, and it also deals more burst damage than disintegrate. It's more useful early game in a dual lane since it can land a first blood faster and the aoe is helpful in case of an early team clash.

So...
1. Incinerate/Disintegrate
2.which ever one you didn't pick

Then max disintegrate and then incinerate, getting Timbers whenever possible. Some people prefer to get a level of molten shield at level 5 to charge up stuns faster, but i prefer to get more burst damage. You can choose which one you like better. Finish molten shield last. Some people might wonder why we level disintegrate over incinerate even though incinerate does more damage. The reason is because disintegrate's cooldown is half as long as incinerate, so the actual damage over 8 seconds is higher with disintegrate than incinerate. Not to mention incinerate's lack of spamability and hefty mana cost.

5.Farming
Use disintegrate to last hit creeps. It costs no mana so use it as much as possible. Once you get a decent amount of AP and magic penetration, you can start using incinerate to one hit ranged creeps when they stack. You can also use incinerate to farm those ghost neutrals thingys (ones with life steal) since they usually go down in one hit once you level up disintegrate to level 4 or 5. Try to get some help getting the Golem rune, since the cooldown reduction and mana regen is really useful.

6. Ganking/ First Blood
For first blood or early ganks, use ignite FIRST since you want the AP bonus from embers before you use your nuke (what good is that +10 AP if you already used your spell?) then followed by your normal attacks. If you have Exhaust, use it right after ignite (if you have it), and then follow with a normal attack and then with your nuke. The point of this is to maximize the time that they are slowed/stunned, so that you or your lane partner will get more attacks in. If they are getting away, you can use flash (if you have it) to nuke one more time.

While your lane, every time you get stun, harass the enemy with disintegrate, followed by an autoattack and then incinerate. Basically, this will keep the enemy hero to around 1/2 life or lower by the time you get Tibbers. If you can finish them up with your 2 nuke combo previous to that, then go ahead. If not, once you get to level 6, get a stun and initiate with Tibbers. For some reason, people tend to use Tibbers last, but by doing that you are wasting the damage that Tibbers could have been doing through his aura and attacks. So basically, the order then becomes:

1.Ignite if you have it.
2.Tibbers. Immediately ALT+CLICK on the enemy hero so Tibbers starts attacking.
3.Exhaust if you have it.
4.Incinerate
5.Disintegrate
6.Autoattack till you can cast your nukes again, but they should be dead by now.
Use flash to chase if you need to.

With Exhaust, not many people get Cleanse in higher level play anymore due to its nerf, but occasionally someone will, so don't waste it on them. Always target the carry/caster first. Don't forget to keep molten shield up for survivability in ganks and a faster stun.

7.Working with the Team
Annie can initiate, but i prefer to let a tank initiate with a slow and then start the above combo on some poor soul. STAY ALIVE. Flash out if your too much in the middle and then go back in. Remember to focus their caster or carry first. If an ally is being chased, unleashing incinerate/disintegrate will sometimes cause them to back off.

SummaryAnnie is one of the best casters in the game, and rightly so. Her short cooldowns along with her amazing burst damage capability makes her very much feared in higher level ELO play.

Please, if you've enjoyed this guide, RATE IT (Through the first link). All comments and criticisms are welcome. Whether it's a positive rating or a negative one, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you vote. If you haven't voted in the past election or couldn't vote, here's your chance to make up for it.

I've gone through alot of Annie guides myself and have had to make my own Annie guide, but I have to say this is a nice guide.

I thoroughly enjoyed the debate section on which skill to get first (disintegrate or incinerate). Personally I prefer disintegrate because incinerate is not very typical for a lane, especially when you're partner doesnt understand which skill you got first, plus by the time you built up your stun and teleported to the spot, the bush ganking have already started and ended.

I do have an issue in the item build guide. First off, it would be easier on new people (considering this guide is reccomended for the low and mid elo) by listing them in certain sections. From your item build section, I really only see a list of useful items to go with at certain conditions but not an overall item build. As for frozen heart, I would have to disagree on ever getting that because Annie has a natural high cool down and can cover the rest of the way with the golem buff. Considering you have haunting guise, you have cooldown there as well so another would be a waste; of course if I am considering a beginner then I guess armor would help...

In addition to the item build listing of what to get in sequence, it would be nice to put up multiple item type builds. I see a mixed assortment of armor, AP, HP, magic pen, and cool down in that list. Making a build for pure AP, pure magic pen, or hybrids would be generally nice for the beginners along with an explanation of which to go with and why for what items.

Another thing I would like to point out is the summoner abilities. Clairvoyance is a nice skill for a team battle but nerfing Annie by taking that as a skill would just block a slot for a better skill to employ on Annie. Clarity is nice but for Annie, you jump in, nuke, burn your mana through spam, get a kill, and then leave to set up another one. Why bother trying to lane longer? You wasted a slot for a possible ignite or exaust. Don't bother mentioning Fortify since it is a defensive skill and requires situational moments which are not needed on an Annie. Cleanse is just not necessary either since you can always flash away when debuffed. Cleanse is only for melee dependant heroes and Annie only needs to go in, spam and leave. Also I did not see a spot for exaust. Exuast really helps take down the melee dps carry heroes by slowing and making them miss. After exausting you just spam on them, run ahead so they cant get out of range much while you are on cooldown and spam again till they die.

Lastly I wish to say that THANK YOU for providing a section to which skill to go in order. I know some other guides also tell people to use Tibbers to use first in order to maximize the damage of autoattacks he does while they are stunned while you nuke the enemy, but some dont seem to explain enough in detail. I have to say I even forgot to place this in my guide. As for the skill spam list, I do wish that you do place a different skill spam sequence in there to note that not all the time is it reccomended to waste Tibbers on an enemy. In a battle where you came in late and see that your team mates have managed to isolate and slow an enemy but he is not goind down for some reason, it is better to just use your other skills and save Tibbers for a multiple hero gank or when you face other people by yourself. It is highly situational but just a suggestion.

Otherwise, I do think this is a nice addition to the Annie guides and is definately noob friendly to those who wish to try out Annie in different ways (MP, AP, etc). I rate this guide as a 7.5/10. Now if only someone made a tank Annie...I SWEAR she rapes face as well haha.

With the item build, annie doesn't need much to kill. Her basic combo already does huge amounts of damage, so the rest of the build other than stacking AP/magic penetration is based on other team. Like i said in guide, frozen heart is only used if the other team stack mass DPS, otherwise you go for veil. This build is to maximize survivability and damage at the same time, which is why you see such an assortment of AP/health items.

In terms of summoner abilities, i somehow forgot to mention exhaust and ignite, although i mentioned both in the ganking section. I edited it now. With the other abilities, annie is already pretty versatile, and i almost always play with clair, since i find it to be so valuable in setting up and preventing ganks. I only put fortify in there for the sake of premade push teams, like i mentioned in the guide.

On using tibbers first, tibbers has pretty decent cooldown, and a good bit of overkill is fine, as long as your not using it on some guy with 100 health or something.

is archangels staff viable? It provides AP, and with annie's numerous skills that are pretty spammable, you can rack up a decent amount of mana as the game progresses (in terms of ap from the staff, and just having an endless mana pool)

I'm a fan of CDR on annie. Her ap ratios are weak. And simply having tibbers up and ready all the time is key. he lasts 60s, and you can get his CD down to 72s.
The amount he does on summon isnt as important as simply summoning him, which does a large splash innately, as well as his own very high melee dps hits, and aoe aura.(Neither his melee or aura scale with ap.)

Another thing is Lichbane.
I've been arguing this for every caster really. all the crying about not being able to kill towers as casters.
A 400ap annie.
1. Disintergrate will do about 550 damage. 625range. with 40% cdr 2.7s CD.
Her auto attack range is also 625. Very long. Meaning if you can disintegrate, you can auto attack too. 92+400ap= 492 autoattack after every disintegrate. cast, rightclick for 100% chance to attack. They can't outrange it. Its literally adding another nuke. And practically doubling your disintegrate damage.
2. towers.
Tibbers does 130/hit to towers. greatly increasing her dps vs them. (Another reason to have CDR so hes alwasy up vs them.) But add in LB too. you can proc it with tibbers, MS, and incinerate to ensure its up every 3s vs the tower to burn it down much faster.

is archangels staff viable? It provides AP, and with annie's numerous skills that are pretty spammable, you can rack up a decent amount of mana as the game progresses (in terms of ap from the staff, and just having an endless mana pool)

Annie never really has issue with mana. Archangels isn't recommended. She doesn't scale well with ap, and doesn't need mana.
Incinerate is short range, so she tends to get fairly close, despite her long autoattack, dis, and tibbers range.
So hp items tend to be more desirable. RoA.

Additionally, RoA, and archangels get better over time. Since RoA is more of a given, the time frame to get both becomes very long, and you wont ever really get the benefit of archangels if you get it after RoA.

Annie doesn't need to stack mana nor does she, and you'll rarely find her short on it. Archangels really doesn't offer much in terms of improvements to Annie's metagame.

In terms of CD reduction, Annie's abilities already have relative short cooldown, and if you really need it then just get golem buff. Survivability and magic penetration in my opinion goes a lot farther than stacking CD.

For lichbane, it's viable, and i'll add it into the build as optional, but this is more a luxury late game item, and the parts needed don't really benefit Annie.

Great guide, glad to see someone else promoting a Magic Pen build instead of the pure AP build I've seen so many people doing. I've been doing much the same build, except my late game item build is different:

With this item set I've become much more viable late game, as I'm still doing 1/3 of the carry's health with each spell. The only problem is I'm kind of squishy, so I've been considering grabbing banshee's instead of Abyssal for 65 more gold, although it'll drop my AP below 600. I'll see how it affects my damage. It'll probably be worth it.

Oh jeez, what will you do if your under 600 ap...XD. you'll be fine. Even when your around 300 ap you' can take down most carries and casters with one combo. In most games i play, i'm always the one focused first so survival is a bit more important to me. Also, if your getting 600+ AP, get lich bane since your attacks with your spells will net you a couple thousand damage in a combo.